Jim Williams

Jim Williams is Director of the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project for the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, headquartered at the Earth Institute, Columbia University. Since 2005, he has been Chief Scientist at the San Francisco consulting firm E3, where he has advised on many aspects of energy technology, planning, and regulation for government and industry clients. In 2007, he led E3’s analysis for California state agencies on implementation of AB 32, the state’s landmark climate policy. He was lead author of an influential 2012 article in Science that analyzed California’s path to reducing Greenhouse Gasses (GHGs) 80 percent below 1990 by 2050, and subsequently has been closely involved in the analysis underlying Governor Jerry Brown’s announcement of the state’s commitment to a 40 percent reduction by 2030. In 2014, he led a research team from E3, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that conducted a similar analysis for the entire U.S., “Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States.” A Mandarin speaker, Jim was until recently Associate Professor of International Environmental Policy at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, where his research interests included the technical and institutional challenges of decarbonizing China’s power sector. Jim received his B.S. in Physics from Washington and Lee University, and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from the University of California, Berkeley.

With just over a week to go before Chinese President Xi Jinping begins his first State Visit to the United States, there is much evidence to suggest that bilateral action to fight climate change is an area most ripe for meaningful Sino-U.S...